


Birthday Kisses

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo 2018 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Party, Domestic Avengers, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/M, Fluff, Kisses, Pepperony - Freeform, Post-Avengers (2012), Tony Stark Bingo 2018, tony's birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 19:59:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14776301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: One of Tony's fondest memories is the birthday kisses he'd get from his mom and his Aunt Peggy when they were still alive.Now, decades later... Pepper, the Avengers and Co., and everyone else in Tony's life bring it back.(Post-Avengers movie)





	Birthday Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> My first entry for the Tony Stark Bingo Challenge! Woot! This is my middle free square.
> 
> I admit... I literally wrote this a year ago, like a week or two shy of Tony's birthday. And I didn't want to be late to the party so.... I've been sitting on this for a year. Waiting.
> 
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TONY!

“Aw, this one is sweet,” Pepper handed the faded photograph over to Tony, and a smile curled his lips as he looked at the picture. 

They were in one of the storage rooms in a sub-level of the Tower, going through a couple of boxes of memories. After an electrical short in an exposed wire in one of the other storage rooms had nearly caused a fire, Tony had decided to start scanning everything so he’d have a digital copy in case anything ever happened. He and Pepper had been coming down and working on this project for the past week whenever they had a spare minute, and it had been a bittersweet experience, for the most part.

He studied the photograph in his hands, the memory of the occasion just as faded, but no less real. He was young, probably no more than four or five, and Maria and Peggy were on either side of him, kissing his cheeks as he grinned at the person taking the picture.

“Birthday kisses.”

“Hmm?” Pepper was slowly going through another stack of photos, Jarvis scanning and cataloging them as she did so.

Tony waggled the picture in his hand a little. “Birthday kisses. Something my mom did, I always got kisses on my birthday. This was… my fifth birthday, I think. Probably Jarvis taking the picture.”

Pepper looked at the photograph again, reaching for it to study it more closely. “That’s a darling memory, Tony. Kisses from your mom and Aunt Peggy.”

“Oh, not just them, everybody. I even got kisses from Jarvis and Ana, and Howard once or twice. But I got most of them from my mom. It drove me nuts when I was older, but man, what I wouldn’t give to have one of those kisses now.”

Pepper’s soft smile wobbled at the wistful note in Tony’s voice, and the shadow that suddenly fell behind his eyes. The memory was clearly treasured, maybe even a favorite, but it carried with it the pain of having too many years without Maria.

Tony seemed to shake himself, then he shot her a small smile and reached into the box again, the moment past.

 _Past_ , Pepper thought to herself, _but not forgotten._

Her favorite genius had a birthday coming up in a couple weeks…

 

_May 29th_

Tony woke up to Pepper kissing him. It wasn’t unusual, being woken that way, but then she kept kissing him, persistent in her pursuit, until he was sputtering sleepily and half-heartedly trying to bat her away. She wouldn’t be deterred, though, she just… kept dropping kisses all over his face and even his hands and arms as he chuckled and feebly attempted to block her. For a second he thought she was trying to take advantage of any morning wood he had going on, but then she finally leaned back and smiled at him, something interesting in her eyes.

“Happy birthday, Tony.”

It clicked instantly, and he smiled at her. Of course Pepper remembered. “Birthday kisses?”

She nodded, “Birthday kisses.”

“I could do with some more of those,” He reached for her, and she went into his arms happily, settling in for some kisses that led to something more.

\--------------

Breakfast time found Tony in the communal kitchen, eating his favorite sugary cereal as he tapped at his tablet with his free hand, making minor modifications to a set of mechanical blueprints.

He jumped a little when a hand suddenly slapped something down beside him, and Rhodey was very lucky to avoid having sugary milk sprayed all over him for startling his best friend in the middle of eating breakfast. As it was, several droplets flew across the table as Tony looked over, spoon still hanging from his mouth, milk trickling down his chin and into the bowl of slightly soggy frosted flakes.

“That is a super attractive look you’re sporting, and I feel like I need to document this moment.” Rhodey pulled his phone out to take a picture, but Tony fended him off as he laughed and gagged around his mouthful of cereal. Rhodey conceded after a minute, more out of concern for his phone than anything else, seeing as how Tony was now spewing chewed up bits of frosted flakes everywhere as he laughed.

“Give me a minute, I’m gonna suffocate,” Tony managed around the rest of his mouthful, and Rhodey made a show of folding his arms and tapping his toe as Tony continued to snigger and fight to get the chewed-up cereal down. 

“While you get yourself under control,” Rhodey leaned forward and planted a smacking kiss on Tony’s sleep-mussed hair, nearly sending the genius choking again when he inhaled in surprise.

“What was that about, honey bear? Am I that cute in the morning?”

“Happy birthday,” Rhodey said simply, nudging the envelope closer to him. Tony grinned as he picked it up, years of getting purposely awful birthday cards from Rhodey preceding this moment. He ripped open the envelope and pulled out the card, eyes flicking quickly over the words before he burst out laughing.

“Rhodey! That is in such poor taste!”

Rhodey chuckled in a very self-satisfied way as Tony read the card again, still laughing. It had a skeleton wearing a party hat on the front, under the words, _You are really nailing this whole “not dying” thing._ There was a brief message scrawled inside, limited to “Happy birthday, congrats on not dying. Love Rhodey”.

“I don’t think I can show this one to Pepper, she’ll make that face. Gallows humor is not funny to her anymore, I’ve tried to die on her too many times.”

“Consider this positive reinforcement to not try that again, ‘kay?” Rhodey pulled Tony in for a hug, and kissed his cheek when they pulled back, making Tony give him a weird look again.

“Okay, seriously, when did kissing become part of our thing, not that I’m complaining, but—”

Rhodey smiled and shrugged, “Birthday kisses.”

Tony rolled his eyes and just looked like he was so exasperatedly _fond_. “Pepper told you.”

“Pepper told you what? Hi, Rhodey.” Natasha had come into the kitchen, stretching her arms over her head and heading for the coffee pot.

“Hey Natasha. It’s Tony’s birthday, give him kisses.”

Tony spluttered in protest while Rhodey grinned, and pulled something out of his pocket. “Before I forget, present.”

Tony was a little bit pink in the face as he accepted the card Rhodey handed him, and scoffed as he grinned. “Twenty dollar gift card to Starbucks? Platypus, I could BUY Starbucks.”

“Sure, but would that get you the double shot latte you like to start your morning right? I don’t think so.”

Rhodey ended up staying for breakfast, and Tony put his gift card to use by sending out for coffee and scones for the three of them, since Natasha hung around too once she heard the offer for free food. She and Rhodey were halfway through a good-natured, light roasting of everyone’s favorite billionaire when a few more of the Avengers trickled in and joined the party (more Starbucks was ordered), and Tony finally had to throw his hands in the air in mock-frustration and loudly announce that he was leaving before he was completely eviscerated. He made it halfway to the elevator, intending to go down to the lab and work on some things, when Natasha popped up out of nowhere in front of him.

“Gonna attach a bell to you, Nat, I swear I will.”

She just smiled and leaned forward, holding his face still with her hands as she kissed both his cheeks. “Happy birthday.”

A little, pleased smile lurked on Tony’s face as she walked away, and stayed on his face all the way to his lab.

\-----------------

Tony and Bruce were halfway through designing a prototype bio-scan system for the Tower security system (it would integrate Jarvis’ systems and allow certain biosignatures to access certain areas of the Tower without the need for key cards or the like) when it happened again. 

Tony was reaching past Bruce to adjust a calculation on the holoscreen they were both working on, when Bruce turned his head and kissed Tony’s arm, continuing on with his own calculations without a word.

Tony’s mouth dropped open for a moment, then closed, then opened again, but Bruce smiled just a tiny bit and beat him to it. 

“Birthday kiss. Natasha told me. Happy birthday, Tony.”

Tony muttered for a solid five minutes about gossipy Tower-mates, but as he also didn’t seem to be able to stop smiling, Bruce didn’t pay him any mind.

\-----------------

Tony came out of the elevator on the communal floor around noon, head down as he ran some calculations in his head, and just about shrieked when he suddenly found himself being literally picked up off the ground by a pair of huge muscular arms. He was then pressed against a broad chest, and kissed full on the mouth by a smiling Thor.

“Many felicitations, Tony Stark!” The God of Thunder said joyfully, putting Tony back on his feet again. “I hope you enjoy the day. Humans have so many fewer years than Asgardians, which makes each one a treasure. I expect the day carries much happiness for you.”

Tony stuttered out a thank you to Thor’s retreating back, then had to sit down for a second at the kitchen table just to process. All he’d done was come up from the lab for a sandwich, and he suddenly found himself being kissed by a demi-god in the hall. Pepper walked in a moment later, and she was giggling as she sat down next to Tony, giving him several kisses.

“Thor asked me about the birthday kisses, I think he heard about Rhodey and Natasha. It is just now occurring to me that I should have mentioned that cheek kisses are just fine.”

Tony just shook his head, still looking baffled. “Well, that’s not something everyone can say, Pep. For my birthday, I kissed Thor. Put that on Twitter, we’ll blow up the internet.”

Pepper just laughed and shifted over into Tony’s lap, dropping a few more kisses on the side of his neck as he tucked his arm around her shoulders, still shaking his head.

\--------------------

He was tag-teamed by Clint and Steve when he tried to go back down to the lab after a quick catnap on the couch with Pepper, sandwich and leftover Starbucks scone in hand.

They got off the elevator together, talking about what Tony thought might have been Star Trek, when Clint caught Tony first, hooking a muscled arm around Tony’s neck and planting a big, sloppy, disgustingly wet kiss right on his cheek before he practically bounded away, cackling, “Happy birthday, old man!”

Tony was yelling hollow threats after him and scrubbing his cheek with his hand when Steve leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Happy birthday, Tony. Pepper said we’re exchanging presents later, right?”

Tony had his free hand clapped to the top of his head, sandwich and scone clamped in the other hand, and he was looking at Steve like the guy had sprouted red, white, and blue wings out the side of his head. “When later? Is there a party? Am I having a birthday party without my knowledge?”

“I’m bringing the booze!” Clint called from the kitchen.

Steve nodded, “I’m bringing balloons. What’s your favorite color?”

“Excuse you, I am Iron Man,” Tony started to say, just as Clint chimed in again with, “Red and gold, Cap, c’mon!”

Steve grinned at Tony’s exaggerated eye roll, and waved as the genius headed for the elevator. “I think we’re starting at six, Bruce’s job is to bring you. Happy birthday!”

Shaking his head, Tony waved back and smiled as he punched the button for the lab.

Seriously. He lived with such weirdos.

\-----------------

“Dummy, what are you doing?!”

For probably the fifth time in the last several minutes, the bot’s arm was nudging up against Tony’s hip insistently, and he looked away from the wiring inside the Mark VIII he was soldering to look down at the bot through his goggles. “What’s up?”

Dummy rolled forward again, and his claw managed to grip the hem of Tony’s shirt and tug. Tony was pretty sure the bot would have been all over him, had he not been perched up on stepladder to get the right angle inside the armor.

“Jarvis, what is this hunk of ridiculous trying to do?”

The AI’s voice sounded amused. “Sir, I believe he is trying to give you a birthday kiss, but he can’t reach.”

With a groan and a sigh, Tony set the pliers and soldering iron aside and climbed down, stepping away from the ladder so the bot could roll closer. “Alright, you big metal puppy, come here.”

With a happy whirring noise, Dummy scooted in close and angled the arm until the claw was just at Tony’s face height, then bumped the claw into his cheek several times. Tony patted the arm and smiled in spite of himself, the bot’s affection melting his heart.

Across the room, U noticed that Dummy was getting attention and rolled over at an almost reckless speed, boxing Tony in and getting his clawed arm up for pets and kisses as well.

“Children. I have little needy, mechanical children and I have no one to blame but myself.”

“Might I also take this opportunity, Sir, to express my own congratulations. Happy birthday, and if you would consider this a kiss from myself.” A noisy, juicy kissing noise played from the invisible speakers that Jarvis spoke from, and Tony had to sit down on the floor, he was laughing so hard. Dummy and U were quite concerned for a moment, but once Jarvis reassured them that Sir was fine, they took turns bumping more bot kisses against his grinning face and patting gingerly at his hair.

“Best birthday ever, guys. This is the best birthday ever.”

\------------------

“Sorry to crash your birthday, Mr. Stark, but Directory Fury said these were quite urgent.”

Tony shrugged and nodded for Maria Hill to set the data stick on the side table as he fiddled with his phone. He was slouched on the couch in the living room of his and Pepper’s penthouse, a large engine part on the towel draped across his lap. “Not a problem, I’ve been banished up here anyway so I might as well make use of myself.”

“Yeah, I saw what was going on downstairs, you’re in for a treat.”

“It’s a Stark party, of course it’s gonna be awesome.”

“Especially since it looks like Barton is in charge of the booze, and he’s gonna make you play beer pong to get it.”

Tony groaned and slapped a hand over his face. “Good lord, why did I ever invite them to live with me.”

Maria grinned and shook her head, “I can’t say, but it does occasionally make me question your genius intellect. Oh,” She rummaged in her purse for a second, finally pulling out a silver-wrapped Hershey’s kiss. “Steve mentioned the birthday kisses earlier, this one is from Fury.” She put the chocolate on the table next to the data stick, then leaned down and kissed Tony on the cheek. “And that’s from me. Happy birthday, Mr. Stark.”

Tony was finally getting used to this, and he smiled and thanked the woman as she left. He felt bad for not escorting her to the door, but if he put the engine part down and got anything dirty, Pepper would kill him. Besides, the thing weighed a damn ton and he wasn’t sure he could maneuver it off his lap very gracefully anyway.

“You’re welcome to come to the party!” He called out after her, and Maria nodded as Happy passed her on her way out the door.

“Maybe. Mr. Hogan, nice to see you.”

“Ms. Hill, likewise.” Happy’s cheeks turned pink, just a bit, as he bowed a little to Maria, watching her walk away for just a second before closing the door behind her. Tony hid a smile as he tinkered with the engine part.

“What’s up, Hap?”

“They’re almost ready for you, Dr. Banner asked if I could come get you. There seems to be a problem with the liquid nitrogen.”

Tony looked over at him with a smile. “Liquid nitrogen? This sounds like a fun birthday party. Come help me get this off, I think my lap fell asleep.”

It took a bit of grunting, but Happy and Tony finally got the part off Tony’s knees and onto a towel on the floor. “How did you even get it on your lap, boss?”

“Can’t really remember, I was doing something.” Tony flicked his fingers towards his phone and stretched, his spine cracking a few times. “You’re staying for the party, right? Did Clint really set up beer pong?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t been down there yet, I came straight up from the garage. Oh, before I forget, I don’t really kiss guys, so this is the best I can do.” Happy took Tony’s hand and kissed the back of it, bowing over it with a comically serious expression on his face. “My liege.”

Tony buried his face in his other hand and started laughing. “Happy. You poor man. You put up with so much.”

“Thanks for noticing, boss, now go get the grease off your hands so you can go to your party.”

\-------------------

The party was just as awesome and juvenile as a party could be when there was beer pong present, and speaking of presents, Tony got some awesome ones, especially since most of the people there hadn’t even known it was his birthday until that morning. 

Pepper gave him keys and a picture of a vintage car she, Rhodey, and Happy had bought for him to fix up (he’d been talking about getting something new to play with). Steve gave him a beautiful sketch of the Iron Man suit. Natasha gave him a pair of gorgeous black tungsten cufflinks. Bruce told him that they’d be getting a 3D printer delivered to the lab the next day (soooo much childish fun to be had). Clint got him a huge gift bag full of ridiculous gag gifts, including whoopee cushions and fake barf and even a book of Shakespearean insults and how to use them (you know, useful stuff). Thor hadn’t been able to go back to Asgard to get a suitable present, but he had invited Jane Foster to the party, and she had helped Thor pick out several nifty gadgets and tools that Tony couldn’t wait to use. Darcy Lewis had tagged along with Jane, and she proudly gifted Tony with her very own taser.

“Got me out of more scrapes than I ever would have believed, that thing, it’ll keep you safe out of the suit. Feliz cumpleaños, iron genius.”

Every gift was accompanied by more kisses, and by the end of it, Tony was sure his face was an entirely noticeable shade of pink, and his cheeks ached a little bit because he couldn’t stop smiling. He challenged Clint to a round of beer pong, and the rest of the night passed with laughter and good-natured ribbing. Natasha, to no one’s surprise, drank every single one of them under the table except for Thor and Steve, but they were eager to reassure her that if they’d had normal human metabolisms, she’d have had them laid out too.

Tony stumbled to bed in the wee hours of the morning, with Pepper at his side and a smile on his face.

“I’m not dying, right, Pep? That’s not what’s going on?”

Pepper smiled and kissed him again, a soft, sleepy kiss on the cheek as she snuggled closer to him under the covers and closed her eyes. “No, you’re not dying. But you are loved.”

He couldn’t speak for a moment, not over the lump in his throat, but it didn’t matter because Pepper always seemed to know what he couldn’t manage to say.

“Happy birthday, Tony. I love you. Now let’s go to sleep.”

“Thank you, Pepper. This is the best birthday I’ve had in a long, long time.”

“I’m glad.”

(Pepper had also given him a framed picture, the photograph of a five-year-old Tony smiling behind the glass, getting kisses from his mom and his Aunt Peggy. It was sitting on his nightstand, next to the picture of Dummy braiding Pepper’s hair, and when Tony woke up the next morning with Pepper in his arms and his cheeks still sore from smiling… He couldn’t help but look at that old photograph, blow it a kiss, and smile again.)


End file.
